Labour productivity slips for the third straight quarter with 1.5% contraction in Q4

Productivity from almost all sectors dipped last quarter.

Data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed that overall labour productivity contracted by 1.5%
cent in the fourth quarter, the third consecutive quarter of decline.

All sectors saw a dip in productivity, except for finance & insurance, which registered robust productivity growth of 5.1%.

The biggest productivity dip was seen in the business services sector, which declined by 3.5%. This was followed by the transportation and storage and wholesale and retail trade sectors, whose productivity dipped by 3.3%.

For 2014 as a whole, overall labour productivity declined by 0.8%, a reversal of the meagre 0.3% productivity growth in 2013.

The MTI attributed the decline in overall productivity not only to productivity falling across most sectors,
but also a rise in the employment share of less productive, domestically-oriented sectors.

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